Peacefully at home, surrounded by family after a courageous battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Barbara (nee Tomaszewski), children Rebecca (Matthew), Meagan (Ryan) and James (Celeste), grandchildren Arthur, Dorothy, Graham, August, and Florence, and siblings Mary, Ian and Jane.

David was born in Scarborough, Ontario, to the late Helen Emily Campbell (nee Huber) and Albert McTaggart Campbell. He grew up on a sixth generation family farm established by Scarborough’s second settler, William Cornell, in 1799. David was raised in a political family, with his father serving as Reeve and Mayor of Scarborough and later as Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto. He developed an early passion for the natural world with a particular focus on bones. His parents nurtured this interest by arranging visits with influential curators and mentors at the Royal Ontario Museum. Throughout this period of early networking at the museum, his interest grew leading to incredible experiences such as crossing the Arctic Circle in 1967. He went on to Western University where he met Barbara in 1971 and achieved his B.Sc. in Honours Zoology in 1972. David was hired by the Canadian Museum of Nature that same year to manage the mammal collection and conduct fieldwork across remote regions of Canada. David and Barbara were married in 1975, built their home in the woods in rural Kanata and later raised their three children.

David retired from the Museum in 1997 and started his second career as a stay-at-home father, a role he relished. Starting that year and continuing for many years, he took each of his children on annual one-on-one canoe and bike trips, encouraging adaptability, resiliency, and navigational skills, as well as sharing the importance of leaving a place better than you found it. He also loved his Friday Morning Bone Club where he shared his deep knowledge of and passion for biology and natural history through bones with homeschoolers. He was a fearless carpenter and built several impressive and functional structures on the family homestead as well as countless woodworking projects, including a first prize coffee table at the 2025 Carp Fair. He loved cycling, journeying from Vancouver to Toronto in 1971, participating annually in CHEO bike-a-thons, and completing 45 kilometres before breakfast every day. Proud of his family history and tradition, he relocated and rebuilt a heritage barn from his Scarborough home to his Kanata home, and continued raising chickens and producing maple syrup, as was done on the Scarborough homestead.

The family is grateful for the tireless care of the medical staff at the Irving Greenberg Family Cancer Centre and the Ottawa Hospital, and at Bayshore Health Care who helped with home palliative care. Special thanks to Dr. Swan, Dr. Rushton, Matt and Mahir.

The Family will receive condolences on May 4, 2026 from 1:00pm - 3:00pm and 6:00pm - 8:00pm at Tubman Funeral Homes ~ Carp Chapel. Service to take place on May 5, 2026 at 10:00am at Tubman Funeral Homes ~ Carp Chapel, followed by Interment at Malloch Road Cemetery in Arnprior. Reception to follow burial at Tubman Funeral Homes ~ Carp Chapel.

Please consider making a donation to CHEO in lieu of flowers.